This is part of an ongoing series that chronicles our challenges and (hopefully) successes living on a $4/person daily food budget. For the what and why of this series, please read our first post HERE.
We have officially hit the turning point.
I remember the end of week two. Drew and I sat down and had a really serious conversation about whether or not we could continue with the experiment. Drew had lost 15 pounds. Fast. I had lost 7. We’re training for a half marathon (me) and full marathon (Drew), and our bodies felt like they were breaking down. We promised each other we would stick it out until the end of September, two weeks before our race, and make the call at that point if we still felt we needed to stop at four weeks rather than continue for six.
When we first ventured into the issues of Food Security in February, we were training for a May race (10K for me, Marathon for Drew). One month on $200 killed our training. We had no energy. We lost too much weight too quickly. We were shaky and irritable and hungry. It took a few months for us to get back into our training schedule. We didn’t run the race. We didn’t want that to happen to us again.
But we stuck with it, we’re in the home stretch. Last week, we somehow ended up with money left over. Though, in fairness, one of our meals was covered, the closest that I get to a work dinner.
Last week, Honda Canada took us for a test drive in their Honda Fit and treated us to some harbourside golfing and dinner at Bistro Le Coq.
I thought I was going to die from sheer bliss when our server walked us through the cheese and charcuterie board. It was a marathon of a meal, a stark contrast to our lonely little chana masala sitting at home in the fridge, our would-be dinner. We both were embarrassingly excited and vocal eaters. We ate loudly, professing our love of every bite we took – an endless “try this, eat that, ohhh myyyy gosssh”.
I didn’t even take pictures – save this sad, dark iPhone shot – and only because I had to wait for the server to finish telling me about each cheese on the board.
When the meal was over, we snuck a peek at the bill for four. It was more than we’ve spent in a month on groceries.
But even without that treat of a meal, we probably still would have made it through week five with a little extra. On Saturday, I spent our extra on a smorgasbord of chemical and fat laden goodies at Cineplex. My mom, sister and I took in a screening of Gone Girl (So Good – read Carsten Knox’s review here) and decided to pick our tickets up at Costco ($25 for two tickets, a regular popcorn and two pop). Movie tickets these days ring in at around $10.50, so the treats work out to a mere $4. In this case, that $4 was split three ways (Editor’s note: this is the first I’m hearing about this. 😐 – Drew).
I felt a mix of delight and shame digging into the treat – an internal chorus of “is this really worth it? Is THIS really what you want to spend your money on? Is this the kind of food you want to put in your body? Shouldn’t you be sharing any extra budget with Drew?” (Editor’s note: grrrrr. – Drew)
We’re almost at the finish line. We appropriately finish this challenge the night before race day. Race day also happens to be THANKSGIVING. We’ve got a full list of things we want to eat that day, though if it is anything like our meal at Bistro Le Coq, I suspect I’ll be able to eat very little. The challenge has really impacted how much and how quickly I can eat without feeling sick. Here’s what else we bought (and ate) in week five.
Week Five Shopping List:
Tomato Sauce – Sobeys: $0.99
Cheese – Sobeys: $5.50
Pepper – Withrows (Local): $0.88
Eggs – Withrows (Local): $4.00
Butter – Shoppers: $3.69
Corriander – Bulk Barn: $0.50
Turmeric – Bulk Barn: $0.43
Canned Tomato – Sobeys: $1.50
Parmesan – Withrows (Local): $4.59
Celery – Withrows (Local): $1.89
Rice – Sobeys: $4.99
Sausage – Withrows (Local): $3.40
Flour – Bulk Barn: $5.25
Yeast – Sobeys: $3.99
Zuccini – Withrows (Local): $0.15
Cucumber (3) – Withrows (Local): $1.00
Spinach – Withrows (Local): $2.50
Milk – Sobeys (Local): $3.00
COFFEE!!! – Java Blend (Local): $.4.85
Meals This Week:
I’ve continued to make my own bread which has served as sometimes breakfast (PB toast) and usually lunch (tomato or cucumber or peanut butter sandwiches, whatever is available). When we aren’t having bread with breakfast, it’s been eggs with mixed veggies or spinach omelettes. I also made a few green smoothies this week with our spinach and left over frozen bananas from last week.
Dinners:
Our meals were so exciting in the first few weeks, but somehow we’ve managed to settle back into favourites. This week, we made jambalaya for the first (and second) time, gluten-free pizza (a few times :I), risotto, and pasta. The jambalaya was really fantastic. All the recipes came from Good and Cheap except the gluten free pizza crust (recipe HERE), and the risotto (recipe HERE).
We’ve been so keen to finish for the past few weeks, and while I am looking forward to tearing into a whole lot of food this Thanksgiving, we’re both keen to keep our budget eating mostly intact. It’s crazy how much our feelings have changed in a matter of weeks – from almost throwing in the towel to considering keeping our new-found budget practices.
